The present invention relates to a mainboard that has a selective connection COM/VGA jack layout and particularly a mainboard that enables designers or manufacturers to selectively connect a COM jack terminal or a VGA port terminal for plugging a display device.
In order to meet market demands, at present the design of computer mainboard 1 can be categorized in two types (as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4) based on technical sophistication of professionals and novices to offer different connection of peripheral devices (such as display cards, audio effect cards, etc.). One type of the mainboard 1 includes VGA display card functions (built-in image), and another type does not have the VGA display card functions (built-in image). However these two types of mainboard 1 all have a connection area designed according to the universal FLEX-ATX/MICRO-ATX/ATX specifications for connecting different port jack terminals. For instance, the connection area may include a PS2 port connection area 2, a USB port connection area 3, a serial port connection area 4, a parallel port connection area 5, a specific area 6, a MIDI/GAME port connection area 7 and an audio socket connection area 8.
The design difference of the two types of mainboard 1 mentioned above is that for the mainboard 1 that does not have the VGA display card functions (as shown in FIG. 3), designers may directly connect a COM2 jack terminal 63 on the specific area 6 of the mainboard 1. For the other type of mainboard 1 that has VGA display card functions, designers may directly connect the jack terminal 64 of the display device in the specific area 6 (as shown in FIG. 4). As a result, there are two different specifications of mainboard 1. Manufacturers have to produce two different specifications of mainboard 1 for users to choose. Thus production cost is higher. It is because the size of the specific area 6 defined according to the existing universal specifications allows only the COM2 jack terminal 63 or the VGA jack terminal 64 to connect on the same mainboard 1, and the jack panel of the mainboard 1 cannot accommodate another set of jack terminal. To increase the size of the jack panel to house an additional set of jack terminal will result in design alteration of the casing for the mainboard. And the circuitry on the mainboard also has to be redesigned; This will incur significant cost increase.
Moreover, there are many computer peripherals to couple with the COM port, such as mouse, modem, serial printer, terminal device, etc. When users choose the mainboard 1 with VGA display card (built-in image) functions, the VGA jack terminal 64 replaces the COM2 jack terminal 63. However, there is only one COM1 jack terminal 42. It creates a lot of problems when users want to upgrade the computer or expand the peripherals in the future. To improve the situation, manufacturers have to allocate an additional COM2 jack layout 9 on the blank area of the mainboard 1 and to connect the jack layout 9 to a retain board of the jack panel through a serial port flat cable. Such an approach further increases the production cost and process of the mainboard 1.
Therefore the primary object of the invention is to resolve the aforesaid disadvantages. The invention provides a mainboard that enables designers or manufacturers to select directly connecting a COM2 jack terminal or a VGA jack terminal for a display device.
Another object of the invention is to enable manufacturers or designers to design only one type of mainboard to reduce production cost and process.
A further object of the invention is to enable the COM port jack layout to directly couple with a serial port flat cable when the VGA port jack terminal is selected so that there is no need to allocate an additional COM2 jack layout on the blank area of the mainboard to further reduce the production cost of the mainboard.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.